Kale turned to me, his grin highlighting his high cheekbones. “We’re almost to the point where we start the hike.”
“We’re going to hike? In the dark? Way up here? Maybe not the best idea. There are wild animals. There are homicidal helicopter pilots with machine guns. I’m in heels!”
Kale shook his head. “Homicidal what?”
I shook my head. I doubted the helicopters could see through forest this dense, anyway.
“Nothing,” I mumbled.
Kale patted my knee.
“For the animals, we’ll use baking soda to cover our clothes. It dampens our human scent. But you’ll have to deal with the heels. I warned you. We could have stopped by your apartment. And you’re going to be freezing in your dress. But the walk isn’t far, and you can wear my coat.”
I crossed my arms. Earlier, when Kale suggested we stop by and get an outfit from my apartment, I told him where to shove it. No way could I face Fia right now. The next time I entered our apartment would be to remove my belongings. But I needed to find a place to live, first.
“I’m not worried about being cold,” I said. “A nice mountain walk sounds amazing actually. Minus the wildlife.”
“You know you can control the animals, right? With your gift?” Kale said.
I shook my head. “Yeah, so can Vaz.” I explained the bobcat situation to Kale, who shook his head in disgust.
“But I don’t even like animals, so it’s never occurred to me to try,” I said, shuddering at the thought.
“Yeah, it’s important to understand the being you’re trying to persuade, to feel empathy for the creature. If you hate animals, you shut off your connection to them,” Kale said. He parked the car in a gravel outcropping on the road and turned off the car’s headlights.
“And that’s out of the question, at least for tonight. Please make sure we keep our distance from all animal creatures,” I said.
Kale laughed and shook his head as he exited the car.
“Didn’t you care for any animals growing up? I’ve never met anyone who hates animals.”
I glared at him. “Hate’s a strong word. Animals can be cute, from a distance.”
Kale handed me a flashlight and turned on his own. I closed my eyes and inhaled the forest air, dry and clean. Crickets sang in from their posts, and their waxing song relieved my animal anxiety. The fresh air felt glorious against my skin.
After decorating ourselves in a baking soda dusting, we hiked forward. Our feet crunched pine needles and dirt on a path Kale knew well. Sweeping my flashlight through the dense darkness, I squinted my eyes.
“Listen to the crickets,” Kale said, amusement in his voice. “If there’s a bear, they’ll get quiet.”
“Just enjoying the scenery,” I said.
Kale laughed. “You know, I was thinking about the legend.” He slowed, so we walked side by side. “The birds in the story. I’m not sure they’re literally birds.” He looked at me for a moment.
A sudden flapping movement above broke our gaze. With the help of my flashlight I glimpsed eyes darting to the ground, searching for dinner.
“That’s a hawk,” Kale said.
I nodded. Maybe a demon could control the birds, persuade them to seek out another world for the people. But why would a demon use birds to help the humans?
I explained my thoughts to Kale. He shrugged. “Maybe it’s not the demons who controlled the birds at all. Maybe the demons themselves made the flight.”
Could it be possible? The stories may have even started with demons with wings, flying to another world. But over time, maybe a story-teller revised the tale to something more identifiable to the people. Less scary. Everyone knew birds could fly. But again, why would demons help the humans escape from the demons?
“I’m only telling you this because I think we still need to discuss some issues with Dan,” Kale said. He stopped and turned to me. “Whether you like it or not, we need a demon on our side.”
I shook my head. Dan and I would not be on speaking terms for a long time. His betrayal cut the deepest, so I ignored the pain. “I’m not talking about this. I’m not ready, Kale.”
“Okay. How about we talk about where we’re standing?”
Kale gestured to a simple table, created from three rock slabs. Eagle feathers had been tied to tall grass surrounding the stone and blew in the night breeze. He removed a pouch and said words in Hopi, soft and enchanting.
Kale laid out a small blanket, and we sat on the ground. My eyes grew heavy as I slipped into my meditation. I repeated my mantra, allowing the energy from the moon and the forest to build around me. At Kale’s suggestion, I tried to picture my mother. I had a photo of her from my Dede, but I knew I needed to imagine more than a smiling face. Scent, sound, taste, touch, sight. One by one I opened each of my senses, trying to be receptive to anything unusual in the energy surrounding us. After several minutes, I felt it.
Pins and needles prickled their way from my toes to my temples, increasing in pressure. I could hear a hissing, the energy around me built and roared like a tornado around me.
“Is that her?” Kale whispered. I opened my eyes to meet his own. My heart thudded, palms became sweaty. I didn’t want to turn my head. Kale smiled at me.
“She looks a lot like you.”
My eyes finally left his. I raised my lashes to the apparition in front of me. A shimmery image of a beautiful woman floated before me. Her dark brown hair fell in waves around her shoulders. Her eyes slightly wide set, grayish blue, like a winter sky. Her smile wide, warm with love.
I stood on shaking legs. Although I knew only an ethereal image shimmered in front of me, I couldn’t help but reach out to touch her. My hand slipped through her shoulder.
“You’re here,” I said.
Always, her lips said. She reached out to brush my cheek. The sensation felt cool and soothing against my heated skin.
You amaze me, she said. So strong. Not alone, she pointed upwards. Always with you.
I nodded, closing my eyes. An infinite number of questions came to mind. Did she love my Dad? Why didn’t my Dad love me enough to stay? Will I ever see her again? How could Aunt Mer have her killed? I pushed away these questions, not wanting to ruin our brief moment together.
“I love your records. I listen to the music almost everyday, and think about you.”
She threw back her head in a silent laugh, her shoulders shaking. That’s because you have good taste, better than your father’s.
The mention of my father’s name made me hold my breath. I wondered if my mother knew he left me.
“Chelsea, you’re sort of smoking,” Kale whispered.
Before I could I ask what Kale meant, I screamed out in pain. My back felt as if ropes of fire were whipping my skin. Bobcats, again?
“Ahhhh!” I yelled as pine needles dug into the skin on my knees, my fingernails dug into the earth. The pain in my back ripped my flesh.
“What is that thing?” I screamed. My flesh was being sliced open. I fell to the ground in pain.“Kale get it off!”
Kale knelt beside me. “I don’t think I can, Chelsea.”
What was he talking about? His eyes met mine. He sat wide-eyed. No. He wanted me dead, too?
I cried out again, pressing my forehead into the pine needles and dirt. My head spun, but I struggled to maintain my equilibrium.
“I think we underestimated the power of the full moon tonight,” Kale murmured. “Maybe it was smart to wear your dress, after all.”
I tasted blood as my teeth bit my tongue. “Why are you not helping me! Kale, please, I’m dying and you’re talking about my freaking clothes?”
Kale bit his lip. Was he smiling? “You’re not dying, Chelsea.”
As if responding to his words, my agony subsided. The burning lessened. My head hit the dirt. Crickets stopped chirping.
Kale reached out his hand to touch something above me. I felt a soft stroking, but Kale’s hands weren’t on my back.
“This explains your sudden heat intolerance,” Kale said. “Your body was preparing itself for flight.”
Kale’s words made no sense, so I ignored them. Kale acted calm. Maybe the meditation caused the pain?
My mother. I sat up, wiping debris from my face. My mother’s ethereal appearance was gone.
“Don’t worry. We’ll call Dan. He’ll know what to do.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Enough with the Team Dan references! I said I didn’t want to talk about Dan. What about my back? Does it look bad? Is searing pain common when people channel their ancestors?”
“You’re back, it’s gorgeous,” Kale said, again reaching passed my shoulder. “Your wings are the same color as the pines.”
As his words sank in, I gasped. I reached over my shoulder, touching soft downy feathers.
“Oh, my god. The moon gave me wings.”
Preview of Sunshadow (Moonfire, Book 2)
Coming February 2017
Chapter One
Chelsea
Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door. I loathed the person inside but needed what they could offer. Sweat dampened my palms, and I wiped them on the front of my borrowed jeans.
To hell with my nerves, I can do this.
Coaching myself, I hummed a chipper tune.
Footsteps echoed behind the door. My steady breathing and humming soothed my pounding heart.
Out of habit, I ran my fingers through my brown hair once, before realizing it. Lovely. My lizard brain still held feelings for the man who betrayed not once, but twice. I reminded myself of the old saying. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Ha, I wonder what they would say about being fooled three times. Shame on our mothers?
Well, we were orphans, so maybe shame on the universe? No, the blame was my own. I needed to own my mistakes. Learn from them. So I would not be fooled again. But I needed information. And my gut told me to follow through. But my lizard brain, well it needed to shut the hell up, or I wouldn’t get what I needed.
My foot tapped. With my arms crossed, I rolled my eyes. What the hell was taking so long?
Images of betrayal and deceit flashed in my mind. My face flushed. I counted the reasons I hated my one-time tutor, one-time lover. He attempted to murder me when I was a teenager? Yeah, fucked up. Who goes around assassinating innocent people? Much less, kids? And he made a career of homicide!
He seduced not only me but my Aunt- aka the woman who raised me.
Eww. Gross.
I narrowed my eyes at the peephole and tossed around the competing ideas of flipping off or mooning whoever peeked outside.
Seriously, someone needed to answer the door, and what smelled so damn bad?
Yes, anger felt ten times better than another betraying emotion right now.
The door creaked open a crack. Bloodshot eyes with gray irises peered through. As smoke wafted out of the apartment, the eyes widened in mock surprise. A predatory smile lit up the dark brown face of the man. I hated him more than the other one. My nostrils filled with a skunky scent, and I smirked, lifting my chin.
“Hey, Vaz. What’s happening?”
“Chelsea Shephard, what a surprise…” Vaz trailed off, his eyes widening. I met his stare when his eyes found mine again.
Sure, my jeans fit two sizes too big. The Hopi theHigh cross country t-shirt I wore smelled like sage and lavender. A small but heady reminder of one person I trusted at the moment. I wasn’t dressed to impress. But my borrowed clothes paled in comparison to my new attire.
“Ah, why don’t you come in?” Vaz asked, eyes gleaming. I glared at him as I walked through the apartment door. “Dan’s going to want to see this. Grab a seat, and I’ll get him… shall I?” He closed the door and turned around, but made no motion to move.
I ignored Vaz’s annoying mannerism of always ending his sentences with questions. “What have you been up to, Vaz? Through with destroying other people’s lives, taking a little smoke break?” I didn’t sit. Small tasks like sitting were awkward, at the moment.
Vaz laughed, his gray eyes crinkling. “Everyone needs to unwind now and again, don’t we? When you’ve roamed Earth for as long as I, you find ways to relax are more expedient than others. Smoking isn’t my favorite, but it suffices when I’ve no one to keep my bed warm.” He smiled and stared at me, circling like a hunter. I stood with my shoulders straight and head held high. He fed me the bitter truth about my ex and my Aunt. I’d rather eat my own vomit than speak to Vaz. A few more answers, then I could leave behind the drama and focus on the short future ahead.
“I don’t need to talk to Dan,” I said, voice wavering at the sound of his name on my tongue. Anger, not sadness. I swallowed the discomfort and spun around to where Vaz stood behind me. “You should be able to give me the same advice.”
Vaz walked towards me, eyes never leaving the area above my shoulders. He reached for something on the counter behind me. The heat I always felt from Dan also radiated from Vaz, too. But now the heat combined with my own, drawing us together. Shocked, I leaned back away from him, the counter cutting into my… back. My cheeks flushed as he pulled back and took a long drag from a joint. He narrowed his eyes and exhaled the smoke into my face. He circled me again.
I held my breath for a moment before exhaling. Vaz’s intimidation techniques grated on my nerves.
“You’re not the first I’ve seen with a set matching your eye color,” Vaz said, cocking his head. I could feel him staring at my back again. “That’s not so rare. But I’ve got to say I’ve never seen any green, ever.”
“I’m not here for your perusal,” I said through clenched teeth. “I need to know how to get rid of them.”
Vaz took another drag of the joint, motioning to me. I shook my head. I didn’t do drugs. He shrugged, setting the joint back in the ashtray on the counter. His mouth parted as he stared at me again.
“You mean permanently? It would hurt like hell. And it’d be a damn shame to cut off such magnificent wings, wouldn’t it?” he murmured, running his fingers through the soft feathers of my wings. His breath on my ear caused goosebumps to cover my arms, despite my super-heated body temperature. Apparently, even 100-degree bodies could get the chills.
“Get your hands off me, demon. I need to figure out how to incurvate them,” I said, batting Vaz’s hand away. He chuckled.
“So you’re running back to the man who betrayed you, I have to say I’m genuinely surprised you’re here. You are the forgiving type, aren’t you? I thought it would take several years for you to forgive the betrayal of everyone you loved. But not 48 hours later, here you are. So much more like your mother, and… much less like your father.”
Bile rose in my throat at the mention of parents I didn’t remember. I swallowed hard.
“I’m not here to discuss bloodlines, Vaz. I need information,” I said with a bitter edge to my voice.
“Oh, no family tree discussions today? Okay, we’ll chat about my sister, your ex-best friend, later, too? And discuss how your Aunt plotted your mother’s murder, at the same time.”
My hands clenched.
“Poor little Chelsea Shephard. Quite a misappropriated surname, by the way. You’re more like a lost sheep than one who shepherds. So much betrayal, so few friends. You know, it’s good to get your feelings out there, Chelsea. So unhealthy to keep them festering on the inside until one day you’ve killed your soul. Take it from experience.”
Someone cleared their throat in the hallway. The lump of dread I kept swallowing threatened again. Focusing my eyes on the wood paneled floor, I clenched my toes until they cramped. When I felt safe to do so, I raised my eyes. Vaz made himself scarce to make room for my ex, Daniel Levi.
Dan’s lips parted, and eyes glistened as he reached behind me to touch my wings. An annoying desire gnawed at me. Goosebumps covered my arms in waves. My vision blurred with tears I refused to spill.
“You may carry the most beautiful wings I've ever seen in my existence,” he
said.
I shrugged.
Dan’s eyes met my own. Amber brown outlined in red, like Vaz. My heart clenched at the familiar gaze, and the ache alone hurt enough to make me bawl. But a pain in his eyes mirrored my own, and I wanted to weep over the loss of us. But our actions, more than our feelings, are what define us. Sentiments don’t make the world go round. Although Dan had protected me when I needed a guardian most, he also kept the truth hidden from me. Like my Aunt, who raised me, he never told me the truth. My mother was human, but not my father. I discovered my half-human status on my own. When I decided to finish up my nursing degree in Flagstaff, Arizona, I met Kaletaqa Naha, a Hopi native, who broke the news to me while I worked as a nursing intern on the Hopi reservation.
“Well, I’m having a slight problem. You see, I don’t know how to fold them away,” I said, voice wavering. Dan nodded in understanding. He put his hands in the pockets of his black cargo shorts.
“Incurvation requires muscle memory. Piece of cake once you know where to start,” he said, looking at Vaz. “Vaz, don’t you have somewhere to be? Like anywhere but here?”
“Sure, but you know where to find me.” Vaz winked at me as he walked towards the door. Dan ran his hand through his sun-kissed light brown hair and followed Vaz towards the door. They argued in hushed voices. Dan locked the door behind him.
I crossed my legs and my arms as if my posture would protect me. I felt ridiculous. Probably I’d always be attracted to Dan. But my heart would never be whole enough again after being shattered last Saturday night. Our first real date turned into a heart-wrenching nightmare. Vaz and Fia crashed our date, and not in a fun way. Vaz was supposedly Dan’s lifelong best friend. And when I say lifelong, well, that’s a damn long time. They’d known each other when they both fell to the Earthly dimension thousands of years ago. Later, they became trapped on Earth by the leader of the Heavenly dimension.
Moonfire Page 28